The North Face Apex Flex DryVent Review

The North Face Apex Dryvent is the perfect option for folks who need something to protect them from a downpour but would prefer it to look more stylish than your typical rain jacket. This is where the Apex is unique, with an exterior fabric that looks closer to a softshell or even a sport coat, but with the guts of a real rain shell. This does come at a cost, and that is breathability and weight, limiting its versatility and use for more traditional outdoor or aerobic uses.

Performance Comparison

This jacket is comfortable, stylish, and stormproof. However, its significantly heavier weight and restricted mobility limits its uses for outdoor-oriented applications.

Photo: Ian Nicholson

Water Resistance

This model uses DryVent, The North Face's price-focused proprietary waterproof breathable membrane in a 3-layer construction. What is unique about the Apex Flex DryVent jacket is that they laminate the waterproof membrane to an exterior stretch-woven material, which is what gives it is softshell like appearance.

While this jacket didn't let much water through its fabric, it's exterior face fabric was the quickest to wet out.

Photo: Ian Nicholson

The Apex has a large front storm flap and a deep hood, which help keep its wearer dry. This combination of design features and thick construction help with stormworthiness. While this model does a great job of keeping water out, its exterior fabric started to absorb water quicker than others. While this wasn't necessarily a sign of water getting in, it did makes us feel colder and damper once it happened.

This jacket's hood was deep and comfortable but was the only product we tested to not feature any cinch mechanism. As a result, it blew off our head from time to time and wasn't as effective at keeping the rain out.

Photo: Ian Nicholson

The Apex sports a deep hood, which is nice for keeping the rain off your face. It only has cinches on the sides of the wearer's face (no back cinch); despite this, it kept our head dry, but provided minimal peripheral vision when we turned your head (you just end up looking inside your hood when you turn your head). The hood does not fit over a climbing or bike helmet, but it is possible to wear a helmet over the top of the hood.

Partly due to the lack of cinches but also partly due to design, this model offered the worst peripheral vision of any jacket we tested. When we'd turn our head, our face would quickly end up inside the hood.

Photo: Ian Nicholson

Breathability & Venting

The proprietary DryVent membrane lacks the breathabilty found in jackets of a similar price range; this was disappointing considering it appeared to have one of more breathable interior and exterior fabrics. The interior stretch-knit backer material made the jacket feel less clammy than most. However, if we started working hard or got aerobic, we easily overwhelmed the maximum moisture capacity. In turn, we would end up quickly wetting out the internal material.

The internal material was cozy and was among the least clammy feeling of our test fleet. However, when working hard in this jacket, we found it had some of the worst breathability of any jacket tested.

Photo: Ian Nicholson

Comfort & Mobility

For interior fabric, the Apex uses a solid, stretch-knit backer, which is soft and does not produce a clammy feel. Its material also has a good amount of stretch to it, which helps with mobility and feels less restrictive. However, while we liked the athletic cut, it certainly doesn't have a mobility-focused cut. No other model had its sleeves pull back as far from our wrists when we reached forward, or have the hem raise as much as this one. It will suffice for mellow activities, but if you need something to move with you for your rainy day activities, you'll want to look elsewhere.

This model looks like a sports jacket but unfortunately is also cut like one. It offers some of the poorest freedom of movement and mobility of any model we tested.

Photo: Ian Nicholson

Weight

While the thick stretch-woven exterior and knit interior fabrics are comfortable and stylish, they do make this one of the heaviest models we tested, limiting its use for more traditional outdoor activities, like hiking, backpacking, or mountaineering. At 28 ounces, it's almost double the weight of others in our fleet and is almost five times the weight of some. Weight, along with limited mobility, are the primary factors limiting to this model's outdoor, athletic use.

The Apex Flex isn't designed to wear with a pack. Its handwarmer pockets are quite low, rendering them useless when worn with a harness or hip belt. The bulky zipper and its storm flaps pinched our hips quite badly under the weight of our pack's waist-belt.

Photo: Ian Nicholson

Durability

The weight does have some benefits, and one of those is certainly durability. This product has a stretch-woven face fabric, which is why it looks more like a softshell on the exterior, while the rest in our review use a (more typical) nylon or polyester fabric. While it is quicker to wet out, this model's stretch woven material is thicker and more abrasion resistant than even 50D nylon or polyester models.

The inside is a solid, stretch-knit backer, which is going to hold up better than a traditional 2.5-layer jacket. It will do a better job of protecting its waterproof membrane from sweat and grime, thus increasing the longevity of the waterproof layer.

Despite being nearly double the weight of any other product we tested, it's around average in packed size. This makes it great to throw in a computer bag or briefcase after it has stopped raining. It is shown here next to a 1-liter Nalgene.

Photo: Ian Nicholson

Packed Size

Despite being one of the heaviest in our review, this jacket was similar in packed volume. This lets it disappear in the bottom of a laptop bag or backpack once the storm has stopped, or if it is threatening to pour later in the day. It isn't so enormous that you couldn't throw it in the bottom of your pack for a day hike, but if these types of applications are what you are primarily looking to buy your rain jacket for, there are better options.

This jacket is far more functional than the traditional wool sports coat it's trying to replicate, and it's stylish enough that we wonder why you would bother spending twice the money on something that doesn't perform as well under any circumstance.

Photo: Ian Nicholson

Value

Compared to other rain jackets, this model is in the middle of the road from a price perspective. However, it offers a unique and stylish look; it also provides decent weather resistance, even at if its at the cost of other performance characteristics such as weight or mobility.

This is a great coat for around-town and occasional outdoor use. If you want something purely for outdoor pursuits, you can certainly buy something more technical. If you already have an outdoor-oriented jacket, then this is a functional model that will keep you dry and looking sharp on the way to the office.

Photo: Ian Nicholson

Conclusion